Easter crafts to keep the kids busy this season

Have fun in the lead-up to Easter with some fun arts and craft activities. Whether you are looking for fun ideas to keep your kids busy at home, or you are planning a craft table to keep kids busy at an Easter get-together, make sure you read on for some easy ideas for some crafty Easter fun.

Pretty and glitzy egg cutouts

For this activity you will need:

• cardboard
• scissors
• glue
• hole punch and string if you want to hang them up
• decorations for the eggs - stickers, glitter, little pom poms, washi tape (what is washi tape you ask? Japanese masking tape which is available in a range of colours and patterns. Washi tape is available from a range of stores including here

Cut out a stack of egg shapes from the cardboard. Spread out the decorating materials on the table, and let the kids have fun decorating their eggs. Washi tapes are a great option for small kids as it comes in a great range of colours and patterns and is adhesive so doesn’t require glueing in place.

Stick up the decorated cutouts on the walls and doors. Or you can punch holes in them at the top and join them together with string to create a unique Easter party banner. Find inspiration for the cutouts.

Make bunny balloons

For this Easter craft activity you will need:

• blown up balloons
• pre-cut ears made of stiff paper
• pom-poms
• googly eyes
• glue dots (or any glue suitable for using on balloons)
• marker pens
• glitter

Kids and balloons are a perfect match. Make balloons even more exciting by letting your kids make an Easter bunny out of a balloon. A demo session might be useful for them to get started.

Load the table with a bunch of blown balloons, to use for making delightful bunnies. These bunny balloon creations are excellent with for photographs.

Turn paper plates into Easter baskets

Make good use of any leftover paper plates with this eco-friendly Easter craft.

For this activity you will need:

• paper plates
• poster colours
• safety scissors
• stapler
• stickers
• ribbons
• buttons
• glitter
• glue

Making an Easter basket is a great craft activity. Cutting, stapling, colouring and decorating. Whether you want to make a basket to give with an egg to someone special or to decorate your home for Easter there are lots of ways to make an Easter basket.

Here is one way to make a basket, or another way is shown here. Be sure to show the kids a demo before they start.

Bake some salt dough eggs

For this activity you will need:

• flour
• salt
• water
• rolling pin
• straw
• oven
• poster colours
• glue
• magnets (optional)
• tree branch
• pot with soil

Mix some flour, salt and water to make a smooth dough. Roll it flat and cut out egg shapes and bake at 120℃ for 2 hours. If you are planning to have an Easter tree (any bare tree branch stuck in a pot will do), make sure that you punch a holes with a straw at the top of the eggs before you bake them.

The baked and cooled eggs are ready for colouring and decorating. Once the kids finish decorating them, encourage them to hang them up with a piece of string on your Easter tree! Alternatively, you can paste magnets on the back and give them away as fridge magnets.

Check out this site for inspiration on Easter trees and Easter egg decorations!

Stir up some Easter special gloop

All kids love messing around with colourful slime.

The three most common ingredients you need for making slime are:

• Elmer’s glue (which you will find at shops like Coles, Woolworths, Spotlight or Officeworks)
• baking soda
• contact lens solution (which contains sodium borate or boric acid)

You can find information on making slime or check out this method for fluffy slime.

For younger kids you probably want to make the slime yourself, fill it up inside plastic Easter eggs and then give it to the kids to play with. They can make the slime more interesting with food colour, Styrofoam balls or glitter. Older kids and teens can of course make their own slime under your guidance.

Stuff up a sock bunny

Get these items together for this activity:

• socks
• scissors
• googly eyes, buttons
• permanent marker pens
• ribbon
• filler (rice, Styrofoam beads or cotton)
• string

Help kids stuff up the bunny’s body and head and tie it with string. Trim the top portion to make ears. Use a ribbon to tie around the bunny’s neck.

Finally, the marker pens can add some attractive features on the bunny’s face. You can alternatively paste googly eyes or buttons.

You can find detailed instructions to make a bunny (including a tail).

Design some egg face masterpieces

Assemble these items for this activity:

• plastic eggs
• permanent marker pens
• googly eyes
• strong glue
• decorations (strips of paper, wool, pipe cleaners, feathers)

Get dozens of plastic eggs in different colours. Keep some feathers, strips of paper, bits of pipe cleaners or wool in different colours in a tray (ready to use as hair if children fancy that). This promises to be great fun and will make perfect decorations around the home in the lead-up to Easter.

Easter is a great opportunity to have fun making arts and crafts with the kids. Check out the great range of options we have at our party store to decorate for Easter fun.